Combining a Love of Dogs with Conservation with Co-Founder Heather Nootbaar

In this episode of K9 Conservationists, Kayla interviews co-founder Heather. They discuss how Heather got into the world of conservation detection dogs, her experience before K9 Conservationists, and how she met Kayla.  Science Highlight: Using Scent Detection Dogs in Conservation Settings: A Review of Scientific Literature Regarding Their Selection We Discuss: Heather's dad, who showed bearded collies when she was a kid Heather's history as a zoology major in college, then working in zoos and wolf sanctuaries How diving way into animal behavior and dog training landed Heather a job with conservation dogs K9 Ellie's temperament and how that challenged Heather to grow How Heather made money and survived financially through unpaid internships How Heather selected Ellie for work - and what she'll do differently next time The pros and cons of working with a dog who's more food-driven than toy-driven What Heather learned in a K9 Nosework class that helped (and didn't help) as a working dog handler The hiccups Ellie and Heather experienced during their first wind farm job How Kayla and Heather met and joined forces Where Heather is excited to see the field progress in the future Links Mentioned in the Episode: Ep. 15: Puppy Temperament Tests Aren’t That Predictive With Dr. James Ha You can support the K9 Conservationists Podcast by joining our Patreon at patreon.com/k9conservationists. K9 Conservationists Website | Merch | Support Our Work | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok